Living in a Venn Diagram

[bcholmes]

Some time ago, it occurred to me that I live simultaneously in two very different worlds. At the time, I was working at a client site, and I was taking part in a Christmas potluck lunch. Most of the people brought stuff that they'd bought from nearby businesses. Plates of sushi, Kentucky Fried Chicken and the like.

In this environment, it was an accomplishment for people to have taken part. Workplace apathy being what it was, to go out and buy a plate of sushi was a phenomenal exercise in giving a shit.

By contrast, in various communities that I hang out in, potlucks usually involved more responsibility. To arrive at a potluck with a dish was not enough. People of good character would additionally bring signs with them that would describe the ingredients of the dish. If this item might have come in contact with nuts, that'd be noted. If it was vegetarian- or vegan-friendly, that was important. This was the standard of being a good member of the community.

I chatted about this, briefly, with one of my co-workers at the time. He didn't really get it. Signs with your potluck dish? Gatherings that considered day care? What were these crazy hippy places that I was talking about?

Now, one could assert that the difference is that in the one case, I'm hanging out in my chosen community whereas in the other case, the only thing I shared with the people around me was that we all arrived at the same building every day.

Okay, I can see that argument. Except that it seems like most people I meet seem to act as if the workplace norms were society's norms. Relatives, ferrinstance, more often behaved like my cow-orkers than like the sf geeks and newsgroup members. Me, I find myself much more attracted to fannish spaces where people want to participate in helping folks avoid food that could kill them.

I think, sometimes, about the fact that the standard in those fannish spaces are more stringent than the standards in conventional spaces. And I've certainly seen any number of people bristle when they've been challenged on failure to adhere to a fannish standard. Often, it seems like some frustration emerges: they say, "in most spaces, people don't care about X; why am I being challenged on failure to do X when so many people don't even think about it." I understand what they're saying, but to be honest, if I controlled the universe, fannish standards would be so much more broadly adopted.

Here's an interesting set of behaviour standards that I quite like: Teh Portly Dyke's "How to Fuck Up" instructions. I think that this is great advice for people who transgress. I don't know for sure, but I think it's aimed at people who don't quite live up to their desired ally behaviour. Regardless, this is, for me, an excellent measure of good character.

I guess I started thinking about this because of the recent Beverly Oda announcement on food aid to Haiti (and other places). Particularly the idea that the Conservative government is untying food aid so that the food doesn't have to come from Canadian sources. I should look at this and think, this is a Good Thing, no? I mean, if Haiti gets food and gets more because the aid agencies can buy from cheaper sources, then that's good, no? Fewer starving people equals good. No?

But I'm not satisfied. Partially, I'm a bit suspicious of what this "untying" business is going to look like. Is it just a whitewash effort? Partially I just lack faith in the idea that the Conservatives will do anything truly helpful for Haiti. But I think that a big part of what sticks in my craw is the governments failure to follow the "How to Fuck Up" formula. I believe that the Canadian government is horrifically complicit in the overthrow of the Aristide government in 2004. I think we fucked up with The Ottawa Initiative, and with MINUSTAH and the interim Latortue government. I think we're channeling money through agencies like CIDA and FOCAL toward business-friendly political parties whose goals for Haiti are directly opposed to the will of the majority of the country. But Canada doesn't acknowledge that. Doesn't apologize for that. The government doesn't feel obliged to account for any of that stuff, and would probably be confused by a suggestion that they should brush up on the wisdom of Teh Portly Dyke.

But I'm supposed to feel good that the government has done a little thing that's good? I... I don't know that I can. And I do get the message from lots and lots of people that the government is in the other circle of the Venn diagram. The fannish rules don't apply.

And I'm aware that this is the sort of thinking that leads the left to constantly turn on itself, and to divide. The HRC sucks because they're failing to include trans folk. Shouldn't Clinton and Obama suck equally? No, at least they're kind of left, and we can accept them as the best of a bad bunch. They're in the other part of the Venn diagram. But, man. That thinking is really wearing me out.